Lots of Google Advertising Info Here!

by Molly Curry, vendorDBauto

Best Takeaways from Google’s Keynote

In all the years I sold digital marketing to dealers it was amazing to watch monthly budgets grow from a meager $500 to $20,000 a month to, in one case (for one roof top), nearly $100,000. So, it was with interest I watched Google’s keynote for The Google Ads, Analytics and DoubleClick Announcements yesterday (Tuesday, May 23rd, 9 a.m. PT) in San Francisco. Here’s the livestream which takes about an hour: https://adwords.googleblog.com/2017/05/GoogleMarketingNext-LiveStream.html. Here’s the Twitter hashtag: #GoogleMarketingNext.

There are some key things dealers need to get onboard with now to take advantage of Google’s advertising launches that will happen this year. If you don’t want to read any further do four things today: 1) make sure your Google business listing is correct, 2) pay attention to your YouTube channel or get busy making one, 3) sign up for the AMP beta here, and, 4) make a note to buy In-Market Search ads as soon as they become available.

ATTRIBUTION TOOLS – Google stat: 30% of people use 5 or more devices. Rather nobly Google is giving up last click attribution (nobly, because last click is usually a Google paid search ad; but then again, competitively, Google might want to take last click away from Facebook). Most marketers know last click is kind of fake and doesn’t explain consumer behavior or what works along the way. This tool is in beta and will roll out free or charge for small to medium sized businesses. There is a lot of math with attribution that Google has been working on for the last two years. They use machine learning to weight the value of your activity across all devices, they have partnerships with credit card companies capturing 70% of all credit card transactions in the U.S. and they read Gmail data. Google is set to make the data more sophisticated and deliver it faster.

AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) – Google stats: 91% of smart phone users purchase or plan to purchase after seeing a relevant ad and 87% of smart phone owners turn to search fist in a moment of need. The problem Google wants to solve is load time on a smartphone. Another Google stat: What AMP will do is load your display ads in content at the same speed as the content of the site. I did a search for WordStream on my smartphone. See the small lightning bolt icon with AMP? That indicates an AMP page. See below for screen shot. Google has over 2 billion pages loading in the beta each delivering in less than 1 second. SIGN UP FOR BETA HERE: http://bit.ly/2qd0rwQ and learn more about the project here: https://www.ampproject.org/

VOICE SEARCH – Google stat: 20% of searches are voice (which means 80% are not, but this number will grow). Imagine a car shopper saying “Okay Google. Where is the closest Honda dealership?” In response Google Home states YOUR dealership name and directions to YOUR store. If so, then it’s because you purchased an ad to be delivered in that response in YOUR area. Start thinking about questions car shoppers will ask around where, who, when and how and you will be ready for Voice Search. Make sure your business address and content is accurate in Google My Business. Pay attention to your local inventory and price point ads, too.

IN-MARKET AUDIENCE SEARCH – Google stat: Consumers who click on a paid search are 25% more likely to make a purchase while at the store and spend 10% more on average. Granted this may be for a GAP store and not necessarily for an automotive retailer, but with new attribution capabilities this will be a product you will want to use. Don’t delay. As soon as it becomes available (and typically I would 6-8 months from now) buy it. In-market audience has been available for display, but now it will open up to paid search. This is different from what you have now which could reach a shopper who is just beginning their car purchase research to someone who wants to find Saturday specials. More precisely, it will lead to a ready-to-buy purchaser. Perhaps experiencing deep competition from Facebook, Google will now leverage its trillions of data points and offer this service. Get ready for pricier bids, perhaps, but totally worth it. Be the early bird on this new ad program.

YOUTUBE – Google stat: Over 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store. Get busy with a YouTube channel. Add great content. Add extensions are coming for YouTube ads and most importantly, Google’s retargeting network expands to YouTube. So now consumers don’t necessarily have to visit your site to be cookied for a retargeting ad.